Nick Marshall has already led Auburn to an SEC championship and an appearance in a BCS championship game, rushed for 1,000 yards in a season and passed for almost 2,000.

In 2014, our readers overwhelmingly expect the Auburn senior quarterback to take the next step and become the best offensive player in the SEC.

Marshall picked up an overwhelming 60 percent of the votes in our Advance Digital readers poll to project who would be the SEC's top offensive player in 2014. Marshall received 2,091 of the 3,484 votes, easily outdistancing second-place Amari Cooper, the Alabama wide receiver who got 678 votes.

South Carolina running back Mike Davis was my choice as the top pick. I felt that as the clear-cut top back in the Gamecocks backfield, Davis (1,183 rushing yards, 342 receiving yards last year) has the best chance of any of the many talented SEC running backs to accumulate the workhorse numbers one would need to win the honor.

Readers disagreed, going with the top returning quarterback in the SEC. Who can blame them?

Marshall operated Gus Malzahn's run-based version of the spread efficiently in 2013, rushing for 1,068 yards and passing for 1,976 more for a unit that was second in the SEC in both total offense and scoring. That was with little time to learn the offense after transferring from a junior college.

Many of our readers expect bigger things to come.

"With
Marshall's dual threat, he's got to be the preseason pick," said a reader going by the handle 'Johnny4AU.' "Gurley may
be the best back in the SEC and they'll rely heavily on him with a new
QB."

The reader was referencing Todd Gurley, the Georgia running back who rushed for 989 yards in an injury-plagued sophomore season. He was No. 2 on my list, behind Davis and ahead of Marshall. I thought Georgia's deep stable of backs might hurt Gurley's production. Gurley received 157 votes.

This was the eighth week we've done a readers poll to choose the top player at various positions in the SEC. We'll finish next week with a poll on the top defensive players. Here are the poll results so far, with my pick in parentheses: